Customer Reviews

Angel In a Red Dress

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

For those of us who view Judith Ivory as one of the finest writers working in the romance genre, the release of "Angel in a Red Dress" is a very welcome return of one of our favorites. The book is a re-release of the hard-to-find "Starlit Surrender", Judith Ivory/Judy Cuevas's first book which was published originally in 1988. Although Ivory's style has gotten more polished over the years, SS/AIARD is one of my favorites of her books with its rich, uncompromising characterizations and adventure-filled plot full of Scarlet Pimpernel-esque overtones.

Judith Ivory is one of the few romance writers who is able to create truly flawed characters and make them both engaging and wonderfully real. The hero and heroine of AIARD are far from perfect individuals, but they are some of the most memorable in the genre, IMO. The hero of the story is Adrien Hunt, the Earl of Kewischester, an arrogant half-French British peer with a well-deserved reputation as a libertine. Adrien is rich, intelligent, handsome and lethally charming. The heroine, Christina Pinn, is the lovely, somewhat spoiled daughter of a wealthy London barrister who comes to shelter at the earl's estate while she is in the process of getting a divorce from her stodgy baronet husband. The attraction between Adrien and Christina is immediate and palpable, with some of the most sensual scenes in the genre as Adrien attempts to charm the reluctant Christina into an affair. (The seduction scene in greenhouse is one of my all time favorites!) Adrien is certainly no "fake rake"--he has actual illegitimate children from some of his previous affairs and Christina finds this fact as disturbing as one might expect. Adrien is a consummate aristocrat--a man who is used to getting his own way in all things and he cannot understand why the proud Christina refuses to become his mistress. But unlike the usual romance heroine, common-born Christina is really tempted by the earl's title, social position, wealth and power as well as by his physical beauty. Christina's dilemma is that Adrien is everything that her bourgeois father has raised her to desire, but it is clear that the earl has no intention of marrying her.

Adrien is a complex, fascinating, very imperfect hero--selfish, high-handed, stunningly autocratic, but he is also intelligent, resourceful, non-judgemental, brave and protective of his friends. Christina is also refreshingly imperfect and three-dimensional as she struggles to maintain her dignity while carrying on an affair with a man that she is sure will eventually break her heart.

The story is set in England and France at the time of the French Revolution and the second half is jam-packed with action and adventure as Adrien (in Scarlet Pimpernel mode) tries to rescue imprisoned French aristocrats from the guillotine. But the main focus of the story is on Adrien and Christina and their complicated, passionate relationship as Adrien slowly comes to realize how much Christina means to him.

Judith Ivory's prose is (as always) exceptional and her characters wonderfully memorable. This is not a "Disney-style" historical romance with a storybook perfect hero and heroine, but readers who prefer a more angsty, emotional story are in for a treat.
Highly recommended--one of my favorite romances!

This book was originally published under the title "Starlit Surrender". You can view the reviews under that title to give you more reviews on this wonderful book. Why the publisher decided to name the book "Angel In A Red Dress" is beyond me as I don't recall the heroine wearing a red dress. In spite of that small item, this is a wonderful book. It is the love story of Christina Bower and Adrien Hunt. I have read hundreds of historical romance, but never one that left me thinking of Christina and Adrien long after I finished reading the book. There is just something so special about this story and to this day I cannot put my finger on it. I own 2 copies of the original published book as it is very hard to find the older title. Without giving too much away Adrien Hunt is every women's nightmare. He is the bad boy with a kind heart. He is a womanizer of the worst sort and doesn't give a damn what other people think. He comes kicking and screaming to profess his love of Christina and he realizes close to the end he does indeed love her. This is a dark story but not one page was boring it kept me revited to the very end. Bravo to you Judith Ivory for a story I could sink my teeth into!! If I could have given this book 10 stars I would do it.

This book was originally published in the 1980s, and the plot-line and the jerk hero characterization really reflect that.

The book is mainly centered around the hero pushing the heroine around, at one point kidnapping her and forcing her to have sex with him over and over again--edging on toward rape, if not over the line. How romantic!

The only thing that differentiates this story from the worst of the early Johanna Lindsey books is that the writing is more slow and deliberate.

The French Revolution setting was interesting and could have made for a fun backdrop and enriched the storyline, but the main characters were so unlikable that the setting was wasted.

Basically, the story, like ALL of Judith Ivory's books, goes like this:

HERO: I'm a mad, bad, and dangerous-to-know super-hot hot hot rake whose glaring character flaws are excused by the fact that I'm so incredibly beautiful and (supposedly) charismatic. Hey, you woman! My incredibly forceful personality compels me to bully you and have sex with you without your consent!

HEROINE: Oooh, look how pretty my skirts are! Listen to how they swish and swash as I walk! I love taffeta!

HERO: I am now going to impregnate you against your will. It's okay, because I'm obsessed with you and romance novel heroes can do anything they want if they're obsessed with the heroine.

HEROINE: Oh no, stop it! Stoppit! Oh, stop, stop, stop--Oh all right.

HERO: I'm like the poor man's Stavrogin! And yet--and yet--all of my mad-badness combined cannot overcome my powerful desire for you, Heroine. I love you!

HEROINE: Well, that's something, I guess.

In sum: unlikable characters render the book unreadable. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth. A painful slogging read.

Compared to UNTIE MY HEART (2002), Judith Ivory elects to write about a novel more epic in scope with ANGEL IN A RED DRESS (2006) accompanied by a particularly strong historical backdrop: the French Revolution. The evolution in the strength of Judith Ivory's writing and prose shows, with a continued attention to setting the scene. She does it very smoothly as the mood and disposition of the characters and/or story impact the surroundings at a given moment in time (and vice-versa). For example, the hero Adrien impinging on a room's smell and accommodations.

Unfortunately for me however, I did not enjoy the story and found characters tough to swallow in this grand 458-page paperback spanning over nine months (discounting the prologue). This book would receive 1 star if not for Judith Ivory's markedly strong prose and writing. I thought the book flailed around impotently for more than 200 pages in the beginning, really not finding its drive until the second part. Then, once we reach the impetus of the novel by the end of the first part (Shadows in the Sun), it fizzles out for more than 2-3 chapters in the following second part (Shadows in the Shade).

The story is mostly about 35 year-old Adrien & 23 year-old Christina's "romance." The divorced Christina starts out as Adrien's mistress and finds herself unwittingly in the middle of Adrien's surreptitious operations. Adrien's secret operation involves rescuing French aristocrats from the guillotine and smuggling them into England during the French Revolution. The first part takes place in England, the second in France, and finally the brief and torturous (literally) third part (Shadows in the Dark) ends in England. All in all, it wasn't fun nor engaging, and although I did enjoy the history Ivory deftly intermingles into the story, I found Adrien and Christina's characterizations often times unbearable. The characterization of notorious libertine Adrien Hunt is completely over-the-top, too fantastical, while the characterization of Christina Bower Pinn too subservient, lacking in self-respect. Yeah, I couldn't overcome the suspension-of-disbelief factor where Adrien was concerned, the entire notion of his character was ludicrous. Again, story & characters: bleh.

Like UNTIE MY HEART, the ending here was once again abrupt for a book not in a hurry at all! In fact, the ending in ANGEL IN A RED DRESS is worse than UNTIE MY HEART. The love scenes are sparse and light, the sensuality and passion not the strongest either if that's what you're looking for.

I didn't quite grasp the reasoning behind the title of this book, it isn't really about the heroine Christina. ANGEL IN A RED DRESS firmly belongs to its hero Adrien down to every word on every page. At one point, a besotted stable boy comforts the beautiful heroine Christina, calling her an angel while she publicly parades around as Adrien's mistress. I suppose that scene gives the book its title along with an emblematic red scarf. However, the larger-than-life character of Adrien Hunt overshadows and clouds the story and all other characters including his heroine Christina.

The story.

Christina Bower's self-made rich father is a rising barrister on the King's bench, and he longs for a title for his grandchildren. After a brief meeting with the notorious libertine the Earl of Kewischester Adrien Hunt, Christina weds Richard Pinn at her father's behest. Only to have Richard Pinn divorce her three years later for not producing an heir and the mounting evidence of Christina's sterility.

Thirty-five year-old Adrien Hunt, the Earl of Kewischester, thrives as a notorious libertine, and he's already fathered 5 bastard children. At one point in the novel, Christina's best friend Evie notes there isn't a woman within miles of the earl's Kewischester estate at Hampshire that doesn't know the earl intimately. In fact Christina's (married) best friend also admits sleeping with the earl a few years back! UNTIE MY HEART's hero had a harem too. Ivory certainly relishes on detailing her heroes' experience.

Ivory packs too many layers onto her hero Adrien. He's the scheming, cunning sailor, the pompous, powerful earl, the Madman, the licentious libertine, the brilliant botanist, the articulate French poet, the lucky leprechaun, the industrious, wealthy entrepreneur, the invincible survivor conquering certain death time and time again, the affectionate father, the outlandish, preening dandy and lord knows what other layer I'm missing. The end result? Too fantastic, too nonsensical, but that may be Ivory's intent, and the attraction for many historical romance heroines: layers upon layers upon layers of trophies added on to Adrien's characterization. After the first 3-4 layers, the next and the next and the next become so frivolous, so meaningless, it's quite preposterous. There's no way to relate to Adrien Hunt, no way to ground him, except from the eyes of his enamored heroine Christina.

Adrien is a regular energizer bunny, takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'!

The story continues on as the French authorities and the British prime minister are after this Madman rescuing French aristocrats from the guillotine while the Madman (Adrien) juggles them all.

Overall, I found the book too girlish, Christina constantly in a state of swooning stupor around Adrien. Too many avid descriptions of the hero without really adding much: tall, dark, handsome, sensual, brooding, attractive, invincible, lucky, cunning, powerful, attractively arrogant, wealthy, affectionate, flexing muscles, yes, yes we get it what else is new?!

Beautiful daughter of a respected barrister on the King's Bench, Christina Bower was attuned to society and in her very first season understood her prospects. Of common-birth she knew that the very dashing Adrien Hunt, seventh Earl of Kewischester was far beyond her reach. Unfortunately she found him totally intriguing and made her feel things she'd never before experienced. Adrien's very scandalous reputation as a libertine made even her title mad father shake his head in disgust, so papa was delighted when Christina settled for the eldest son of a baron.

It would be three years later before their paths would cross again, when Christina would dare to admit to herself that she found the dangerous rogue irresistible. The more she fought the attraction, the more Adrien pursued. Their games would become in some ways a war of dominance, as Christina entered into Adrien's dangerous world of intrigue but only time would tell if they could both emerge as victors in the battle of love.

*** Sometimes publishers re-issue authors older books and for this reason of bringing back the previously entitled STARLIGHT SURRENDER, the folks at Avon should be commended for a brilliant decision that is sure to please and enthrall a whole new generation of readers.
I LOVED this story! The passion, the sensuality, the danger and the excitement kept the action in overdrive with some of the most memorable seductions and steamy sensuality I've read in a long time. Both Adrien and Christina were fabulously complex characters. Christina is older, not quite as naive as her when she first met Adrien. Unaware, she had accompanied her cousin to an earl's estate in order to lick her wounds after being sued for divorce for not being able to give her husband an heir. Christina hadn't realized that the absentee earl was Adrien. She was not immune to the charms of Adrien and somewhere in the back of her mind she knows she should run. Giving into her feelings would be tantamount to inviting heartbreak as he would never consider her as a wife and she could not tolerate becoming his mistress. He was a man whose affairs were legendary, his mistresses legion, and though she knew how glorious it might be, in the end he would break her heart as surely as he himself would eventually need to marry and produce a legal heir.

Set during the French Revolution, Christina is eventually caught up in Adrien's struggle to save imprisoned French aristocrats from `Madame Guillotine'. Adrien is an enigma to Christina, whose actions and attention clearly tell her how much he loves her yet he can't say the words and has no intention of marriage. Handsome as sin, fabulously wealthy, a quintessential arrogant aristocrat, freely acknowledging several illegitimate children whom he clearly cares for, but is confounded that Christina is not satisfied in remaining his mistress. He clearly needs a boot in the behind to straighten him out -- but I loved him anyhow!

Ms. Ivory's prose is flawless in depicting the lush backgrounds of the magnificent estates and boudoirs to the dark and mysterious alleyways of Paris as she vividly paints the characters living and loving in all these fascinating locales. Ivory pens a classic full bodied sensual romance that is a testament to why I love and read romance! Outstanding and highly recommended.

Marilyn Rondeau, RIO - Reviewers International Organization
Reviewing for www.themysticcastle.com

What a weird story. Ivory has written a dark and strange novel...but what else is new. Her novels always center on dark characters and situations. This hero takes opium, has 5 illegitimate children (he flippantly tells the heroine that "they do seem to crop up now and then, in the natural course of things"), and never tells the heroine he loves her. Ugh. There's not much to like about him. The heroine, Christina, falls for Adrien, the hero, but it's a tortuous, unhappy journey. I always end up feeling so unsettled and frustrated by the end of Ivory's books. Nothing is solved, the hero and heroine don't really come to terms with their problems, and I don't like either of them much. I must remember not to buy her next novel. No matter how "intelligently" Ivory writes, her stories are just no fun to read.

The story frustrated me several times. Though vivid characters, Adrien was smug, cavalier, and arrogant to the point I did not like him. Christina was dim and mulish at times. Some scenes were unnecessary and drawn out -- I skipped as much as I read the last third of the book. A good editing could have shortened the book by 40-50 pages and it would have been more readable. The romance seemed lacking. Some plot elements were hard to accept.

I came across this beautiful book years ago, when I was in bad health and confined to bed for weeks, my prognosis not that rosy. Judith Ivory's wonderful writing, her ingenious characterizations, and the sheer quality of her fiction took me away from all the demons and undertoads trying to take over my life, and for the first time, I understood what a keeper was. This was the first book I finished, heaved a big sigh, and started all over again immediately. Of particular note is the brilliance with which issues like divorce and drug addiction made their way into a Georgian historical, not just cleverly, but perfectly. The earl is the most credible, interesting, and real bad-boy playboy turned hero I've ever met, and Christina one of the smartest heroines ever to learn from her mistakes. The dramatic tension is spectacular, the secondary characters more skillfully drawn than many novelists' protagonists.

There aren't enough words to convey what a work of art this book is. If ever romance has risen to the level of romantic literature, it is in this author's hands.

I don't usually leave reviews for books but felt compelled to do so in this case because I left a 3 star review for another Cuevas/Ivory book, Black Silk, a few days ago.

If you have read Black Silk and did not like it, you must give Angel in a Red Dress a read. I absolutely LOVED it. To me, Black Silk, although a wonderful literary work, was sorely lacking in romance and at times the love story got lost in the detailed writing. AIARD was the opposite. It was funny and sexy and I loved the plot and the interaction between the hero and the heroine. I adored Adrien as a hero and Christina was a firecracker of a heroine.

Please please read AIARD if you have read Black Silk and did not like it! There was just so much I enjoyed about AIARD and I am now definitely looking to read other Cuevas/Ivory books. I only wish that AIARD, and not Black Silk, was the first book I picked up for this author.

*Warning: spoiler*
p.s. A couple of reviewers have given their thoughts on the new title of the book. When I read the quote given in Part One Shadows in the Sun - "Except for the corn poppy, the pimpernel is the only scarlet flower in all of England" - I thought that it was a pretty direct "admission" by the author that the Madman plot was based on the storyline of the play, The Scarlet Pimpernel. Of course, if you draw a direct parallel with The Scarlet Pimpernel, then Adrien would be the angel in the red dress which I don't think was the author's intention! Similarly, although it is Madeleine who owns the scarlet scarf, and her character's actions are those of the heroine in The Scarlet Pimpernel, I cannot see the author bestowing the honour of the title on Madeleine. I think the author was making a play on the words "scarlet" and "red" when describing Christina as the angel in the red dress and there is no doubt that Christina is the angel; she is the heroine, she is conjured up by Adrien in his opium induced dreams, his personal angel in distressing times, and she is literally the angel who battles to save him when everyone else thought him dead.

The cover to me was off putting but I'm glad I read it. This was a read a step above the genry. The first half of the book starts their passion and you think it will end there with a happily ever after. But I loved how Ivory drew out their story with such turmoil. The second half of the book made this romance realistic in that our hero is terribly flawed and that guy that we love and hate and want to fix. I just loved that this story wasn't anything like the cookie cutter historical romance that is written over and over and actually had depth and wasn't all sweet and kind. In the real world love is not always easy.